Ventral Tegmental Area Afferents to the Prefrontal Cortex Maintain Membrane Potential `Up' States in Pyramidal Neurons via D1 Dopamine Receptors

@article{Lewis2000, abstract = {The electrophysiological nature of dopamine actions has been controversial for years, with data supporting both inhibitory and excitatory actions. In this study, we tested whether stimulation of the ventral tegmental area (VTA), the source of the dopamine innervation of the prefrontal cortex, would exert different responses depending on the membrane potential states that pyramidal neurons exhibit when recorded in vivo, and whether VTA stimulation would have a role in controlling transitions between these states. Prefrontal cortical neurons have a very negative resting membrane potential (down state) interrupted by plateau depolarizations (up state). Although the up state had been shown to be dependent on hippocampal afferents in nucleus accumbens neurons, our results indicate that neither hippocampal nor thalamic inputs are sufficient to drive up events in prefrontal cortical neurons. Electrical VTA stimulation resulted in a variety of actions, in many cases depending on the neuron membrane potential state. Trains of stimuli resembling burst firing evoked a long-lasting transition to the up state, an effect blocked by a D1 antagonist and mimicked by chemical VTA stimulation. These results indicate that projections from the VTA to the prefrontal cortex may be involved in controlling membrane potential states that define assemblies of activable pyramidal neurons in this region.}, author = {Lewis, B. L. and Odonnell, P. }, citeulike-article-id = {2712827}, issn = {1460-2199}, journal = {Cerebral Cortex}, keywords = {dopamine, pfc, vta}, month = {December}, pages = {1168--1175}, posted-at = {2008-04-24 13:13:42}, priority = {2}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, title = {Ventral Tegmental Area Afferents to the Prefrontal Cortex Maintain Membrane Potential `Up\&\#039; States in Pyramidal Neurons via D1 Dopamine Receptors}, url = {http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/oup/cercor/2000/00000010/00000012/art01168}, year = {2000} }

TY - JOUR ID - Lewis2000 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2712827 TI - Ventral Tegmental Area Afferents to the Prefrontal Cortex Maintain Membrane Potential `Up' States in Pyramidal Neurons via D1 Dopamine Receptors JF - Cerebral Cortex SP - 1168 EP - 1175 PB - Oxford University Press SN - 1460-2199 N2 - The electrophysiological nature of dopamine actions has been controversial for years, with data supporting both inhibitory and excitatory actions. In this study, we tested whether stimulation of the ventral tegmental area (VTA), the source of the dopamine innervation of the prefrontal cortex, would exert different responses depending on the membrane potential states that pyramidal neurons exhibit when recorded in vivo, and whether VTA stimulation would have a role in controlling transitions between these states. Prefrontal cortical neurons have a very negative resting membrane potential (down state) interrupted by plateau depolarizations (up state). Although the up state had been shown to be dependent on hippocampal afferents in nucleus accumbens neurons, our results indicate that neither hippocampal nor thalamic inputs are sufficient to drive up events in prefrontal cortical neurons. Electrical VTA stimulation resulted in a variety of actions, in many cases depending on the neuron membrane potential state. Trains of stimuli resembling burst firing evoked a long-lasting transition to the up state, an effect blocked by a D1 antagonist and mimicked by chemical VTA stimulation. These results indicate that projections from the VTA to the prefrontal cortex may be involved in controlling membrane potential states that define assemblies of activable pyramidal neurons in this region. KW - dopamine KW - pfc KW - vta AU - Lewis, BL AU - Odonnell, P PY - 2000/12// UR - http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/oup/cercor/2000/00000010/00000012/art01168 ER -